Modular broadband adapter system

ABSTRACT

A system which allows modular expansion to provide additional services to high speed data. A high speed data line such as DSL or cable is input to a broadband expandable modem device. The modem device produces an output indicative of the data within the data stream. An expansion output is indicative of voice within the data stream which is separated from the data. The expansion output is coupled to one of a plurality of voice adapters. Each of the voice adapters is expandable so daisy chain communication is possible to add additional layers of voice by simply acquiring additional voice adapters. The system preferably uses USB for the expansion capability.

BACKGROUND

[0001] The present application describes broadband access and uses for ahigh bandwidth line.

[0002] Modern internet access allows increased bandwidth capability. Forexample, cable modems, Digital Subscriber Line (“DSL”) and other similar“broadband” internet services provide more bandwidth than is neededduring an average user's web browsing.

[0003] The extra bandwidth can be used for other purposes. For example,various systems including voice-over-DSL and voice-over-cable allow auser to encode their voice on the same system that carries the data.

SUMMARY

[0004] The present application describes an integrated access devicewhich is modular, expandable, and allows connection of multiple servicesover the broadband data connection.

[0005] The present application describes a modular communication system,that has a first communication device, having a first port which allowsreceiving broadband data, an expansion port which provides output datato allow adding additional data-receiving elements thereto, and a firstelectronic element which analyzes the broadband data and separates datainformation from voice information therein and couples the voiceinformation to the expansion port.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0006] These and other aspects will now be described in detail withrespect to the accompanying drawings, wherein:

[0007]FIG. 1 shows a basic block diagram of the overall system; and

[0008]FIG. 2 shows a block diagram of the voice adapter portion.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0009] The present disclosure defines a number of modular and expandabledevices, 100, 120, 130. Each device is formed within a housing, and eachdevice includes an expansion port. Each of the expansion ports includesa signal that carries the excess information, i.e., any information thatis not processed and/or used by the electronics within the housing. Theexpansion port includes a connection, and the information on theconnection allows connecting to an additional modular and expandabledevice.

[0010] The primary device is the basic modem device 100. This device iscontained within housing 105, which can be a stand alone housingcabinet, a circuit card, or even the packaging for a chip such as anapplication specific integrated circuit or ASIC. The perimeter ofhousing 105 a data port 102 which is connected to a high bandwidthinformation stream such as a broadband data source 99, e.g. a DSL line,cable or the like, and an expansion port 116.

[0011] The data from the broadband source 99 is coupled to a broadbandinterface 104. This can be a commercially available modem chip or adigital signal processor (DSP) configured for broadband access.

[0012] The broadband interface feeds a first electronic element 100,which can include a processor or a microcontroller. The controlleranalyzes the information output 101 from the broadband interface 104.This information output 101 may include both data portions 112 as wellas embedded voice streams 113. The data 112 is separated from theembedded voice streams 113. Only the data portion 112 is used by themodem unit 100, so all other portions, including the voice streams ¹¹³is routed to the expansion port 116. A Universal Serial Bus (USB) host114 formats the information and makes it available at expansion port116. This information is intended to be coupled to Telephony adapters asdescribed herein. Cost effective expansion therefore becomes quitepractical.

[0013] An optional hardware assister 108 can be a digital signalprocessor, a floating point unit, or another device which can increasethroughput of information. A buffer element 107 can also be provided,for temporary storage as needed.

[0014] As described above, the system controller 106 acts on theinformation stream from the broadband data line 99 to separate theinformation stream into a data output 112 and voice streams part 113.The data output 112 is formatted into a specified protocol, e.g.Ethernet 7M and output as formatted output data 112. The Ethernet datacan be used over a local area network providing Internet access, forexample.

[0015] Data output 112 can alternately be in another standard networkform such as universal serial bus (USB) or the like.

[0016] The voice part 113 from system controller 106 is coupled to a USBadapter 114 which drives a USB output via expansion port 116. Expansionport 116 can be used to communicate with one or more additional modulardevices.

[0017] The system block diagram of FIG. 1 shows first and secondseparate voice adapter devices 120 and 130, respectively. Each voiceadaptor device can connect to a plurality of different telephonehandsets, e.g. 122. Each voice adapter such as 120, includes an inputexpansion jack 124 that receives the input representing the informationthat was not used and output by modem 100. An output expansion jack 126is used to pass information that is not used by the adapter 120. Thisexcess information 129 can be sent to an output port for anotherexpansion unit.

[0018] At least one RJ11 jack 128 can be provided on expansion unit 120for connection to a telephone and/or additional telephone electronics.Alternately, the connection to the telephone handsets can use some otherconnector form, or a wireless connection such as by Bluetooth™, usingthe Bluetooth 1.0 specification, Jul. 26, 1999.

[0019] A detailed block diagram of the voice adapter 120 is shown inFIG. 2. An expansion line 117 from the broadband modem 100, includingthe information 116, is input to USB device controller 200. Theinformation input could also be from an upstream voice adapter.

[0020] The USB device controller 200 has an associated memory device 205such as a static RAM or flash memory which includes operatinginformation for USB device controller 200, as well as the ability toupdate USB parameters/protocol via downloading to a flash memory. USBdevice controller 200 also includes a hub portion 210 which controlscommunication with other USB expansion devices over the expansion slot126. The information in memory device 205, for example, can include alist of telephone numbers that are to be serviced by the specific voiceadapter. Device controller 200 then separates the information associatedwith those specific telephone numbers as its data output 220. Allremaining information is possibly reformatted, and output on theexpansion port 126.

[0021] The data output 220 from the USB device controller is coupled toan information separator a pulse code modulated (PCM) transcoder 230 (orsimilar voice codec) for compression/decinoression, e.g. for bandwidthreduction. The system should retain compatibility, however, withstandard 64K bit (PCM) data, to enable use of an analog modem connectedto one of the voice adapter ports.

[0022] ADPCM transcoder 230 compresses/uncompresses and separates theinformation as 240. Each of the separated data streams from 240 iscoupled to a respective PCM codec 250, and subscriber line interfacecircuit Subscriber Line Interface Card (SLIC) 260. The SLIC providesstandard “tip” and “ring” signals 262 which can be in any standard form.One form is an RJ11 jack. Another is a wireless transmission, e.g. overa part 15 frequency to a cordless phone receiver or via Bluetooth asdescribed above.

[0023] According to the paradigm of this system, a service provider canprovide a user with one of the modular devices, e.g. the broadband modem100. The user can later be offered the opportunity to add additionaltelephone lines, each with a separate telephone number, withoutadditional wiring. The additional numbers are obtained by programmingthe number into the memory device 205. The modem unit 100 recognizes thedata information and separates it from the voice information that itdoes not process. The voice information is coupled to expansion port116. Each voice adapter recognizes the telephone numbers associated withthat voice adapter. Additional telephone lines are added by simplyprogramming the new number into the memory device 205, if a port isavailable. If not, an additional voice adapter is connected to theexpansion connector 126.

[0024] The service provider defines the additional telephone numbers.Any incoming voice call is multiplexed on the broadband data source 99,along with a code indication of the phone number. Each adapterrecognizes its own numbers, and passes other numbers. Downstreamadapters, added later on, recognize the additional numbers. No changeneeds to be made to the upstream adapters for these additional numbers,since each adapter passes any information that it is not programmed toaccept.

[0025] The user can later add additional modems or other devices, aswell as any desired number of voice adapters for any desired number oflines. The number of phones or services is limited only by bandwidthwhich may be limited by the slot that is broadband data source 99.

[0026] Other embodiments are with the disclosed embodiment. For example,while this describes the modular devices as being in separate housings,they can alternately be separate expansion cards in a backplane, orseparate units that can be plugged in to a basic motherboard. Formodularity, it is convenient if some portion of the units are separate.In addition, other expansion technologies, such as firewire and thelike, can be used in place of USB.

1-19 (Cancelled)
 20. A telephony over broadband telephony adapter,comprising: a device controller to couple to a host controller of abroadband modem; a modulator to modulate telephony information; atranscoder to transcode information between said device controller andsaid modulator; and a subscriber line interface circuit to couple atelephony device to said modulator; wherein the telephony device is ableto communicate over a broadband line via the broadband modem bycommunicating via the host controller of the broadband modem.
 21. Atelephony over broadband telephony adapter as claimed in claim 20,wherein said device controller is configured to operate in compliancewith one of a Universal Serial Bus standard, a Firewire standard, and awireless communication standard.
 22. A telephony over broadbandtelephony adapter as claimed in claim 20, further comprising anexpansion hub to connect additional devices to the host controller viathe expansion hub.
 23. A telephony over a broadband telephony adapter asclaimed in claim 20, wherein the telephony device is able to communicatevia the host controller of the broadband modem via wireless transmissionbetween the telephony device and the broadband telephony adapter.
 24. Abroadband modem for telephony and data communications, comprising: abroadband interface circuit to couple to a broadband line; a processorto couple to said broadband interface circuit; a host controller tocouple a device controller of a peripheral device to said processor;wherein said processor routes telephony information between saidbroadband interface circuit and the peripheral device to providetelephony communication between the peripheral device and the broadbandline via said host controller.
 25. A broadband modem as claimed in claim24, wherein said broadband interface circuit is a digital subscriberline interface circuit.
 25. A broadband modem as claimed in claim 24,wherein said broadband interface circuit is cable modem interfacecircuit.
 27. A broadband modem as claimed in claim 24, wherein said hostcontroller is configured to operate in compliance with one of aUniversal Serial Bus standard, a Firewire standard, and a wirelesscommunication standard.
 28. A broadband modem for telephony and datacommunications, comprising: a broadband interface circuit to couple to abroadband line; a processor to couple to said broadband interfacecircuit; a host controller to couple device controller of a peripheraldevice to said processor, said host controller being one of a UniversalSerial Bus Controller, a Firewire controller, a Bluetooth controller,and a wireless controller; wherein said processor routes telephonyinformation between said broadband interface circuit and the peripheraldevice to provide telephony communication between the peripheral deviceand the broadband line via said host controller.
 29. A broadband modemas claimed in claim 28, wherein said processor transfers data packetsbetween said broadband interface circuit and a local area network, andtransfers telephony information between said broadband interface circuitand said host controller.
 30. A broadband modem as claimed in claim 28,wherein said broadband interface circuit is a digital subscriber lineinterface circuit.
 31. A broadband modem as claimed in claim 28, whereinsaid broadband interface circuit is a cable modem interface circuit. 32.A telephony over broadband telephony adapter, comprising: a devicecontroller to couple to a host controller of a broadband modem; amodulator to modulate telephony information; a transcoder to transcodeinformation between said device controller and said modulator; asubscriber line interface circuit to couple a first telephony device tosaid modulator; and a hub circuit to couple at least one additionaltelephony device to the host controller of the broadband modem via thetelephony adapter; wherein the first telephony device is able tocommunicate over a broadband line via the broadband modem bycommunicating via the host controller of the broadband modem.
 33. Atelephony over broadband telephony adapter as claimed in claim 32,wherein the telephony adapter has a telephone number associatedtherewith, wherein said hub circuit routes telephony informationassociated with telephony adapter to the first telephony device, androutes other telephony information to the at least one additionaltelephony device.
 34. A telephony over broadband telephony adapter aclaimed in claim 32, wherein said device controller is configured tooperate in compliance with one of a Universal Serial Bus standard, aFirewire standard, and a wireless communication standard.
 35. Atelephony over broadband telephony adapter as claimed in claim 32,wherein the at least one additional telephony device is able tocommunication over the broadband line via the broadband modem bycommunicating via the host controller of the broadband modem via the hubcircuit of the telephony adapter.